Akwasi Yeboah

Akwasi Abeyie Yeboah (born June 15, 1997) is a British college basketball player for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights of the Big Ten Conference. Yeboah competed for the Kent Crusaders of the English National Basketball League (NBL) and led the team to a championship in 2015. Yeboah played three seasons for the Stony Brook Seawolves before transferring to Rutgers as a graduate student for his final season of eligibility.

Akwasi Yeboah
Yeboah in February 2020
No. 1 – Rutgers Scarlet Knights
PositionSmall forward
LeagueBig Ten Conference
Personal information
Born (1997-06-15) June 15, 1997
Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana
NationalityBritish
Listed height6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Listed weight235 lb (107 kg)
Career information
High schoolBarking Abbey School
(London, England)
College
Playing career2014–present
Career history
2014–2015Kent Crusaders
Career highlights and awards
  • First-team All-America East (2019)
  • Second-team All-America East (2018)

Early life

Yeboah was born in Ghana but moved to the London suburb of Chigwell, England at the age of nine after his mother Winifred found a nursing job to better provide for him and older brother Kwame. Yeboah started out as a soccer player and did not begin playing basketball until the age of 13. He was, by his admission, terrible at basketball at first. His physical education teacher told him that he was not competitive, which motivated him to improve.[1]

He competed for the Kent Crusaders of the English National Basketball League (NBL) after the Barking Abbey School, which he attended, partnered with the Crusaders to give their top players the ability to play in the NBL. He had a season-high 21 points twice, against the Bradford Dragons and Essex Leopards, and scored 19 points in a 12-point comeback win against the Reading Rockets.[2] Yeboah was a key piece of the team that won the 2015 NBL Division I Playoff Championship. He averaged 12.7 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.[3] In the league final, Yeboah scored 21 points and had seven rebounds. He received his only NCAA Division I offer from Stony Brook's head coach Steve Pikiell.[4]

College career

Stony Brook (2016–2019)

Yeboah redshirted his first season at Stony Brook, which was Pikiell's last at the school before accepting the job at Rutgers. Stony Brook made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history as Yeboah sat out the season due to lack of projected playing time.[5] As a redshirt freshman, Yeboah averaged 9.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game and was named to the America East All-Freshman Team.[6] He scored 21 points and had 16 rebounds in the first round of the America East Tournament in a 70–60 win against Binghamton.[7]

In his sophomore season, Yeboah averaged 15.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.[8] He had nine 20-point games as a sophomore and was named to the Second Team All-America East.[9] He scored a career-high 30 points to go with eight rebounds against Columbia on December 7, 2017.[10]

Yeboah averaged 20.4 points through the first 12 games of his junior season.[11] On December 22, 2018 against Quinnipiac, Yeboah suffered a hyperextended knee but returned to the lineup after missing a game.[8] Yeboah averaged 16.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game as a junior for the Seawolves while shooting 41.3 percent from the floor and 31.6 percent from three-point range.[12] He was named to the First Team All-America East.[13]

In three seasons at Stony Brook, Yeboah scored 1,317 points, the sixth-most in program history.[14]

Rutgers (2019–2020)

Yeboah entered the transfer portal in March 2019 as an impending graduate student, but retained his eligibility at Stony Brook for the 2019–20 season.[15] He was listed as the 36th-best graduate transfer according to Stadium's Jeff Goodman.[16]

On May 2, 2019, Yeboah announced that he would transfer to Rutgers, reuniting with his former head coach Steve Pikiell and choosing the Scarlet Knights over SMU and TCU. He was eligible immediately as a graduate transfer.[14][16] Pikiell called Yeboah "a huge addition to our program,” and he was a key piece in helping Rutgers have one of the best homecourt records and its first winning season since 2006.[17] Yeboah scored 20 points, including a three-pointer to tie the game at 72 with two minutes to play, in a 75–72 win against Nebraska on January 26, 2020 and surpassed the 1,500-point milestone.[18] In his senior season, Yeboah averaged 9.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game and earned the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.[19]

National team career

Yeboah competed for Great Britain on its U16, U18 and U20 teams. In the 2017 FIBA U20 European Championship Division B, he averaged 14.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 0.9 assists per game.[20]

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References
  1. Herrmann, Mark (January 22, 2019). "The rise of Akwasi Yeboah at Stony Brook". Newsday. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  2. Gains, Bradley (April 17, 2015). "Akwasi Yeboah Aiming to Lead Young Crusaders to Final Fours Glory". Hoopsfix.com. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  3. Peck, Adam (April 30, 2015). "Seawolves Add Ghanaian-Born Wingman To Roster". BrookLand. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  4. Carino, Jerry (May 2, 2019). "Rutgers basketball: Akwasi Yeboah, Stony Brook grad transfer, reunites with Pikiell". Asbury Park Press. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  5. Breitman, Aaron (October 31, 2019). "Akwasi Yeboah making seamless transition with Rutgers basketball". On the Banks. SB Nation. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  6. Johnson, Lamar (November 10, 2017). "Maryland men's basketball vs. Stony Brook preview: Terps open 2017-18 on the road". Testudo Times. SB Nation. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  7. "Stony Brook beats Binghamton 70-60 in America East quarters". ESPN. Associated Press. March 1, 2017. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  8. Tam, Ethan (February 13, 2019). "Yeboah's historic drive guides Men's Basketball to victory". Stony Brook Statesman. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  9. "Olaniyi Named America East Rookie of the Year, Yeboah All-Second Team". Stony Brook University. March 2, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  10. "Yeboah has career-high, Stony Brook rallies to beat Columbia". USA Today. Associated Press. December 7, 2017. Retrieved March 30, 2020.
  11. "Akwasi Yeboah - Men's Basketball". Stony Brook University Athletics. Retrieved March 30, 2020.
  12. Nalwasky, Chris (October 6, 2019). "RU grad transfer Akwasi Yeboah having no problems with deeper 3-point line". Rivals.com. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  13. "Lamb Unanimously Chosen Player of Year to Highlight 18-19 Men's #AEHoops Awards". americaeast.com. Retrieved March 30, 2020.
  14. Kratch, James (May 14, 2019). "Rutgers' Steve Pikiell breaks down grad transfer Akwasi Yeboah's game". NJ.com. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  15. Herrman, March (March 22, 2019). "Akwasi Yeboah mulls transfer from Stony Brook". Newsday. Retrieved March 30, 2020.
  16. Breitman, Aaron (May 2, 2019). "Stony Brook Grad Transfer Akwasi Yeboah Commits To Rutgers Basketball". On the Banks. Retrieved March 30, 2020.
  17. Deren, Bobby (January 31, 2020). "Addition of Akwasi Yeboah has been key in Rutgers' rise". 247 Sports. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  18. Fonseca, Brian (January 26, 2020). "How 'old man' Akwasi Yeboah quietly led Rutgers to tight win while reaching career milestone vs. Nebraska". NJ.com. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  19. Deren, Bobby (March 11, 2020). "Addition of Akwasi Yeboah has been big for Rutgers". 247 Sports. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  20. "Akwasi Abeyie Yeboah". FIBA. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
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